Having watched players destined for the 2026 World Baseball Classic in Spring Training last week (Feb. 25-March 2) and viewing the U.S. team's initial win in pool play over Brazil last night on TV (Fri., March 6), I'm enjoying the baseball and thinking of my roots in first watching and attending WBC games years ago.
When games were played at Petco Park--or was it Qualcomm Stadium?--I attended and was immediately caught up in the noisemakers, loud cheers, and emoting by the Latin American fans over their teams: the Dominican Republic at the top, with Venezuela, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and others (Nicaragua?).
It's something we North Americans lack--the emoting. Plus, in our safety and efficiency, we ban noisemakers from stadiums. I lived and taught English for 14 months in Mexico City as a young adult, and unbelievably to me now, I never went to a Mexico City Reds (Rojos) or other team's baseball games. That seems unthinkable now, as my fervor for beisbol has spiked in the last several years.
Anyway, I'm American, and proud to be a citizen of this country. But the Dominicans, especially, by way of my teaching in Mexico City and resultant gaining of a teaching credential in English and Spanish back here in "Gringolandia" and teaching English as a Second Language in night school at Oxnard High School, fed my baseball mania. Whenever I read a story online or look at posters in classrooms (I substitute-teach now), I'm always drawn to the Latin side of things.
Meanwhile, back at the U.S. ranch, I'm pumped over the U.S. team, which probably has few or no players who speak Spanish. In Arizona last week, we saw shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., second baseman Brice Turang (Brewers) (played a key role last night, with two RBI hits), and missed Cal Raleigh.
They all thumped Brazil, another favorite of mine since we had Frederico, a foreign exchange student from Rio, live with us during my senior year of high school. But to their credit, the Brasilenos played well for their level--populated by several present or former minor leaguers in affiliated baseball. For eight innings, it was a ballgame, 8-5, not bad, fairly close, before walks given up led to the bottom falling out.
Imagine being a 17-year-old and pitching to Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, stars you have been watching on TV for years? That happened. The bottom of the first was also led off by Manny Ramirez's son, 20 years old whose mother is Brazilian, hitting a home run on veteran Logan Webb's second pitch. The young man also hit his second homer of the night--the Brazilians out-homered the Americans--later in the game.
Tonight (Sat., March 7), the U.S. vs. Great Britain, another hotbed of baseball. I'm kidding. My wife asked me why they're doing this tournament. I said, it's marketing. Like the NBA and NFL, they're spreading their sport across the globe. It worked in China, where millions of NBA fans live. Why not Brazil, whose national team is coached by Japanese-Brazilians?
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